Discussion - Writing

1. What is the primary concern of politics? What is the thing that politics addresses that other things don’t?
2. What makes “the state” different from other organizations or institutions? (two things)
3. How did you get to class this morning?

What is politics? Common thoughts

• Expensive or involves large amounts of money
• Distant
• Involves politicians or campaigns
• involves voting or decision making
• Involves rights
• National borders
• Controversial

What is politics?

• Not distant
• immediate, here
• touches everything
• direct impacts are constant

What is politics?

• Politics is the process of making collective decisions in the context of…

The State

What is “the state”?

The organized, coercive use of violent force commonly accepted as legitimate

• Violent force
• Legitimacy

Other organizations - legitimacy

• Family
• Church
• Community organizations (voluntary)
• Businesses

Other organizations - violence

• Organized crime
• vigilantes
• terrorists

What is “the state”?

The organized, coercive use of violent force commonly accepted as legitimate

    - Do our findings apply to other behavior (the firm, markets, voluntary organizations, churches)?

    - Can non-state organizations provide examples to understand the state?

    - What about the interaction between the state and non-state entities?

Political Science is:

“…the theory of collective action is the central subject of political science.”

collective action is the “core justification for the state”

• Elinor Ostrom

    - Nobel Prize in Economics, 2009 for her work on economic governance of the commons
    - President, American Political Science Association, 1996- 1997

Political science is distinct from:

• Economics - also studies collective action in the context of voluntary exchange and spontaneous order
• Sociology - also studies collective action in the context of social norms and social structures (may also be spontaneous orders)

Political science also distinct from:

• Psychology - individual behavior and cognition
• Social Psychology - individual behavior and cognition in the context of social norms and social structures

Political Science

• political philosophy & theory
• American politics
• international relations
• political economy
• political psychology
• judicial behavior - not the same as “law”
• policy
• and others…

What is Comparative Politics?

• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): Method of Difference and Method of Similarity (First step)

• Size of study

        - Case study (few cases, small-n) (Method of Difference and Method of Similarity)
        - Quantitative (many cases, large-n), variation is important

• Type of study

        - Examine variables that are similar or different to one another
        - Examine variables across time or geographic differences 
        - Compare different states, regions, etc.
        - Compare the same state, etc. at different times

What is Comparative Politics? Method of Difference and Method of Similarity

Method of Difference

        - Starts with states that differ in the dependent variable result (the outcome)
        - They should be as similar in everything else as possible
        - Find the one other thing that is different
        - That is the cause

Method of Similarity

        - Starts with states with the same dependent variable result (outcome)
        - They should be as different in everything else as possible
        - Find the one other thing that is the same
        - That is the cause
        
        

Course Topic Overview - Subtopics

• Institutions: Electoral Systems, Party Systems, Constraints on the Executive
• Types of Governments: Democracy, Dictatorship, Hybrid Regimes
• Democratization and Democratic Backsliding
• Economic Development and Modernization
• Regional/National, Cultural Explanations
• Conflict, Trade, and Globalization
• Corruption and Repression

Authorship, License, Credits

• Author: Tom Hanna

• Website: tomhanna.me

• License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.</>